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Gardai Traffic Corps Take Advantage Of Riverfest

As someone said to me earlier, its typical of a Limerick person to find the badness in a good thing… and yeah I agree, but what I saw didnt bloody help!
Limerick Riverfest was enjoyable this year, The weather was amazing, the atmosphere was vibrant, the people were merry and friendly and the sights to be had were endless and everyone I spoke to enjoyed it, I had a great time and so did everyone else I spoke to, thats a really good thing, great news for Limerick that the fest went well and fair play to all involved.

Personally though I saw something that really turned my gut, I have to say it here, im sure im not the only one who spotted it. A festival is on, over a bank holiday so some streets are closed, most multistory carparks are closed and the majority of shops are closed and this is going to draw lots of people into Limerick and by god it did my the hundreds, and all those people have cars… as I said above, who gives a care where these people park when theres a ligitamate reason and when its within reason. I saw lots of cars parked on double yellows, outside closed shops and carparks so noone is blocking anything, why would it matter? but no.

I saw the gardai at the riverfest, but not for security reasons, the traffic corps were out in force this sunday and monday, ticketing and DOUBLE ticketing people parked illigally but not awkwardly and in noones way.

Before you start, no I didnt get a ticket I was a good girl, we walked in from a work space, but I really found it unfair to the hundreds of people who got caught, when there was a legitimate reason.
Sundays the traffic wardens are even off! they dont care!! but the Garda traffic guys were crawling the streets making the bookings and advertising yet another case of lining the governments pockets, am I over reacting? I dont think so! what are your views?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 5:04 pm and is filed under All. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • sad
    anyone who got a ticket has themselves to blame...no one else. end of
  • Understood, and I agree entirely, I just thought there would be a little lea way over this weekend! especially when a lot of the multistories were closed!
  • rr
    if people want zero tolerance on crime..then it works both ways i suppose. park illegally you get a ticket. thats the reality..whats good for the goose and all that..
  • LargeLADD
    For years governments around ireland about the donut effect im towns and cities across the country. What the fuck do they do when they get people into the city? They shake us down like some little dublin pick pocket gang. The langers have there heads up there hole. If you want people back in the city give us a decent public transport system and as much free parking as possible, but before they done that i suppose they have to take an investigative junkit with there wife, kids, mistresses extended family before they could figure a complex solution like the above suggestion. Politicians i'd swear we recruit them from the week on week off judging on how useless, lazy brass neck bums most of them are. Rant over, apologies it was so long winded.
  • goo
    'sad' by name and by nature, how petty minded of you to go along with the garda traffic corpse and their miserable antics. If anyone is going to be the turd in the punchbowel its that lot, bunch of ****ing killjoys.
  • Perhaps for traffic to flow through the city, they had to take care of illegally parked cars? However, it doesn't win over "public confidence" in the force. Doing things that are helpful and useful does.
  • blah blah blah
    Double yellow means you can never park there
  • BockTheRobber
    First class policing. Building warm relations with the public and keeping them safe from crime. Another PR triumph by an Garda Síochána.
  • Tom
    typical NIMBY whining. clamp the cars that are in my way but let me park in front of brown thomas!
  • Builderfromhell
    Firstly, people parking illegally and thereby inconveniencing other drivers pi**es me off. Double yellow lines etc. are there for a reason.
    Secondly, the weather was good at the weekend. Why can't people park a little away from the events and walk. Is there a risk of burning a few calories.
    Thirdly, the festival organisers might in future arrange for multi storey car parks to be open.
    Lastly, why are mass goers never ticketed for abandoning there cars outside city churches and causing obstructions and obstructing sight lines all over the city. If it was OK to penalise car owners at the weekend they should do it every Sunday.
  • I wouldnt call it whining id call it voicing my own opinion, of which I may remind you we are all entitled to, I asked for your views not your slaggs thank you, I wont remind you again Tom, and I dont like brown thomas.

    As for the rest of the views, Im stuck in the middle, I agree that parking on double yellows is a no no, im the first to say it, but I have to stress that nearly all the innercity multistory carpaks were closed, with exception to Aurthers Quay that i saw. The multistory on charlottes quay was definately closed up, and a few other ones close to the area it was on, not the point I hear you say?? I think its a very valid point, if you organise an event to bring masses of people into the city, organise ample parking, from what I saw there was no allowance at all.
    I agree with you Builder, if it was an every weekend thing then fine, but its not, I never see the traffic corps out and the one time theres an event and no ample parking and a million cars, their out in force!

    and of all those I did see parking on double yellows, they were not blocking up entrances of anywhere or blocking the road, so im just saying a little lea way would have been a little more welcomming rather than all tose individuals returning to more than 5 tickets on their car!
  • Roisin
    Agree it would have been better to turn a blind eye to any who weren't causing actual obstruction, especially with the high rises closed.
    On the happy side, the city looks so beautiful and it was a great weekend. And those people in the French market must be the most polite French people in existence!
  • Trinity
    well the Gardai were doing sweet f.a. else anyway! Saw two separate incidents where stall holders were attacked and not a Garda in sight! Took them at least three quarters of an hour to get to one incident and by that time the attackers had fled,not just once, but twice. In that space of time they came back again and attacked and punched the same stall holder a second time in an unprovoked attack.
  • starkie
    first of all these cars were illegally parked, the drivers are lazy, they should have parked away from the area where the event was being held. you cant have it both ways, these are traffic cops and that s their job, my only gripe about it is that it should be done every day and night also where cars are parked at corners and outside churches on sundays,
  • BigLADD: so theres only pickpockets in Dublin?

    I do agree though,a bit of leaway should have been shown..
    A better strategy would have been to have the multistorey carparks sponsered by the council for the weekend so they were free,thus bypassing the parking violation problem.
  • goo
    hey so what if some stall owner got attacked, theres parking tickets to write, no go on home folks nothing more to see here,
  • Mike
    Firstly in the past it hasn't been entirely the Guards fault for ticketing of illegally parked cars. A guard once told me that Taxi drivers will regularly make official complaints to the guards about cars theee illegally parked. The guards are then obliged to respond to the complaint. The taxi drivers get more business if people can't bring their cars into town and so it is in their interest to make it as difficult as possible for people to bring card into the city centre.

    However there is also an element of easy pickings for the guards. It's a bank holiday. Nice weather. Lets walk around town for an hour, ticket 100 cars and it will seem like a busy day on paper. It's the same mentality that sees speed points on dual carriage ways and motorways but never on the backroads where young people die in their hundreds every year.
  • LargeLADD
    Sorry to offend you Organdonor that's just the only place i've experienced that type of crime. Still i shouldn't have said that considered it retracted.,
  • Anonymoose
    If it's easy pickings they're after then there's always a load of cars parked behind Henry street Garda station on the Quay. There's a double yellow line there and every day, and this weekend was no exception, there are loads of cars parked on it. Although I think the cards are probably owned by guards as iot's right outside the Henry street garda station car park which is always full.
    I suppose they're entitled to park their private cars on double yellow lines.
  • Angry Man
    Fluking Baxtards
  • LargeLadd:No worries :-)

    If you want to meet the cream of pickpocketing greatness,go to Barcelona its nearly an artform there...
  • Hoof
    No need to go behind Henry St. Barracks, Anonymoose. They're triple or quadruple parked outside the front of it and down as far as the bus stop outside Hibernian House (and sometimes in the bus stop!) - and for good measure there are cars inevitably parked ON the corner / over pavements etc. at the Lr. Glentworth St. junction. Try crossing the road there for fun sometime!

    Rich pickings indeed for the brave soul who'd hand out parking tickets in that quarter........life in Achill is so quiet during the ten-month winter.
  • starkie
    a traffic warden did book guards private cars outside henry st, station in the 70s. he caused uproar, he was on the late late show, does anyone remember that, onne guard sent him a hostile letter, but he woulnt give in he said the law was for everyone, his name was hayes, i knew him well
  • Ahboy Hayes, I agree, the law is for everyone! and yet the gardai seem to pick and choose when they want to use the law most fittingly!
  • 30mileanhour?
    Lette,
    good of you to bring up this one. I saw at Thomand park (Old Cratloe road to be precise) where traffic wardens were sent out the day of a heiniken cup match to give as many tickets out as the could. Some got doubles. None of the line of cars I saw hit were causing any problem. Its a revenue gathering exercise. On the same road anyday of the week you will see the little boyracers breaking the speed limit one after another. Traffic Core where are you ?. On the handy traps to gather more revenue from easy targets. Infact I dont know when I last saw a speed check within the city.
  • Hoof
    @30mph.....Having been twice hit by our wardens in Farranshone during rugby matches. Magners League in my case. OK was on a double yellow, so guilty and paid up, but was not obstructing anyone. Contrast that to when there's a match on in the Gaelic Grounds, cars are what I can only call littered about the place, across driveways, on corners, on playgrounds or abandoned on a main road.

    For example. Some years ago on my way out to a match there I saw some shower of yahoos "atin" dinner out of the boot of their car blithely ignoring a Caherdavin resident whose gateway was blocked by their 4x4, yer man said he was calling the Guards, which elicited a guffawed response of "and who do you think we are" from the brawn sangwige brigade.

    Maybe they don't like giving out tickets on Sunday, for further evidence a trip anywhere near the vicinity of the Domincan Church on Sunday during mass is a must. Pavements, the pedestrian area of Baker Place are cluttered up with cars. On Pery Street and Square cars are double and treble parked. James St. completely blocked off by bad parking. Never see anyone get a ticket, never will either........wonder why (not).
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